nailing up crown molding

[James Baker SD]

I am almost at the finishing stages of a kitchen remodel where I built one wall of new cabinets matching the existing cabinets on the other two walls. One wall had to be ripped out to make room for a larger refrigerator.

I will be reinstalling the crown molding at the top of the cabinets to hide the inevitable gaps due to a very crooked ceiling. I am not skilled with a real hammer and fear swinging it that close to the ceiling, plus there is an flat panel TV just below one location. So I prefer to use a pneumatic nail gun to do the job.

Question is will a 23 gauge pinner be sufficient? Molding is light weight and will have no stress on it. My alternative (given tools I own) is a 16 gauge finish nailer, but the heads look so large I fear they will be difficult to hide.

Thoughts?

[Von Bickley]

I wouldn't do it. I would say a 16 gauge at a minimum. I personally would use my 15 gauge.

[scott vroom]

It really depends on paint or stain grade, size/weight of the moulding. Most of my cabs are paint grade and for those I shoot 18 gauge, which requires filler. For stain grade you can use 23 gauge but I'd add a small bead of construction adhesive where crown hits cab, and smear in a bit with your finger.

[Tom Ewell]

I've used the pinner on cabinets, haven't had any crown fall off yet.... (that I've heard). Shear is surprisingly pretty good with pins, set at an angle to mitigate pull out concerns helps along with an extra few over typical nailing schedule.
Don't plan on 'drawing in' with them, it's more like stitching in position rather than clamping.
Small gaps above crown can be clear caulked for stain grade.

[Jason Roehl]

It really depends on paint or stain grade, size/weight of the moulding. Most of my cabs are paint grade and for those I shoot 18 gauge, which requires filler. For stain grade you can use 23 gauge but I'd add a small bead of construction adhesive where crown hits cab, and smear in a bit with your finger.

I second the 23-gauge plus construction adhesive. Cabinet crown is typically fairly narrow and light. I just painted a new house where the carpenter basically caulked the back of the seams in the crown (10' ceilings, cabinets only went to 7.5' or so), but I don't know what gauge of brad he used. At any rate, that crown was solid, even with the exposed top edge. I definitely wouldn't use anything larger than an 18-gauge, though. That would be overkill, too big of a hole, and a huge risk of splitting the crown since you're nailing through a very thin part of the crown near the edge.

[Jim Dwight]

Sounds like the right project to justify a new tool. I put the base and casing in about 800ft2 of our house with a Ryobi cordless brad nailer. I have lots of Ryobi cordless tools so I had batteries and a couple chargers. It will drive up to 2 inch brads.

More to the point, if it is stain grade, I might use the pinner (I have one) but if it is paint grade, I would use an 18 gauge brad nailer. The pins do hold surprisingly well but I hate having to do things twice.

I like Duo-sil urethane caulk. It is significantly sticker than other caulk and can be painted. It is available more readily in colors but it comes in clear too. A little Duo-sil + pins would probably work.

[James Baker SD]

Additional info.

Cabinets are original to the 1975 house. Walnut laminate on plywood construction. Single panel of ply for the doors. Wanted a complete redo, but wife insisted on saving the two walls and I did not have the energy to fight her on it. Cabinets are utilitarian, not beautiful. We don't plan to move, so kitchen only needs to be functional.

Old molding (which I am reusing) looks like pine with walnut laminate on angled face. Very light weight, but difficult to fill a nail hole and hide it well.

Did a test with a scrap of molding (need less because the frig takes up more room) pinning it to some 3/4" ply scrap from the cabinet build. Two 23 gauge pins are holding it tight enough that I cannot pry it off. Don't think many glues (maybe epoxy) would want to stick well to the laminate that the molding sits against, so I will go with pins only and if it falls off, at least I am the customer who will be unhappy.

Thanks to all who helped out.

[Jim Dwight]

I like wax crayon type fillers - holes for pins are tiny but a little colored wax in them will make them invisible.

[David Ragan]

the 23 gage pins do hold up well for shear strength.

I will second the motion for a new tool

Plus, Tightbond(?) makes a glue that is great for that kind of job, long open time, and does- not-run.

[keith micinski]

I usually use 18 gauge but wouldn't be afraid to use 23. I like the fact that 18 will draw I a little where as 23 won't like someone else mentioned. That tight bond trim and moulding glue is also pretty nice I used it for the first time a de weeks ago on a column wrap and really liked it.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Don't think many glues (maybe epoxy) would want to stick well to the laminate that the molding sits against, so I will go with pins only and if it falls off, at least I am the customer who will be unhappy.

Titebond II will stick to it. Really, I'm not kidding.
You don't need a whole lot of strength since there's very little shearing or load to deal with.

I use up old TB II for this sort of thing all the time. I hate to throw out anything that even looks half good, so, I use it up on things like this.

Just pick at the drippings on the side of a plastic glue container and you can easily see how tight they stick.